It's been another week of mild weather here in Melbourne. As my Summer veggie garden winds down, I'm starting to think of Autumn planting. Darren is keen to get broccoli seeds planted within the next week in the hope of a bumper harvest.
Here's what we've been up to this week -
* Darren emptied a compost bin and spread it out onto one of our veggie garden beds.
* Dug up 2.4 kilos of potatoes from our garden. These potatoes were from volunteer plants that just popped up. So potatoes grown completely free.
* Baked 13 rolls for Darren's work lunches instead of buying them. These are the same size as the jumbo rolls selling in Woolworths for $3 a bag of 6. The total cost of ingredients would be about $1.40 so I've saved $4.60 by baking my own. Luka was here when I was making the rolls and wanted to help. That's why there are 2 smaller ones on the tray.
* Found a couple of plants in the garden that had grown seedlings. I dug them up and replanted them to fill in holes.
* I made another batch of pita chips for snacking. I have one more bag of pita bread in the freezer. I need to start looking at where to buy more from. It's gone up a fair bit in price at the supermarket. A trip to The Dandenong Market might be needed shortly.
* Darren continued to pick blackberries from the bush he's growing. The fruit has slowed down but he should get enough for another batch of jam shortly.
* We continued to be mindful of using electrical appliances while the sun is shining and the solar panels are working. When the sun goes down we try to turn as many things off at the power point as possible.
* I picked beans, tomatoes, raspberries and collected a few eggs.
* Made up 2 bottles of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid. I dilute it 1 part Dynamo to 10 parts water ( or there abouts ). I only use this liquid if the washing is a little smelly and needs a boost.
* Darren pruned our standard roses in our backyard. He came into the house with a bunch of roses for me from the pruning.
* Cleaned the kettle with citric acid. I've also cleaned the kettles of all my cleaning clients too. One client didn't realise that the bottom of their kettle was silver instead of the mineral build up which made it black.
* Sold another 2 items on Marketplace. The extra money was put into the gift fund for 2025.
* Donated some unwanted items to Savers and collected a 20% off coupon. I used that coupon and bought 3 pairs of new or almost new jeans for a total of $27.
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| Rolls for Darren's lunches |
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| Roses Darren bought in for me. |
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| Cleaning the kettle. |
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| @.4 kilos of potatoes from the garden. |
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| Diluting Dynamo laundry liquid. |
Your roses look very pretty together with your apple green tiles, Wendy. Homemade bread rolls for lunches is a great idea too! There's been very little coming out of our veg patch of late so I've started clearing it. I'll dig homemade compost in over the weekend, water in with our worm tea, mulch and then rest it until Autumn planting time. We are expecting 33C here next week so no planting anytime soon. Autumn is best growing time here in Sth East Qld so hopefully the cooler days will arrive soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a too expensive week in our household. Most expenses were unavoidable, like specialist appointments, but I am noticing, since taking on an extra work day this year, that things can quickly fall away when you are really tired. We had takeaway for dinner, which is pretty much unheard of at our place, and at $38 was almost $10 more expensive than the last time we bought it.
We made it stretch to cover dinner for two and lunches for two. When I shopped at Aldi yesterday, I bought two of their frozen pizzas. At around $5ea, that's a lot less than $38 even with additional pineapple pieces added to topping. That's my emergency back-up plan. I have also set aside time over weekend to do batch cook of two meals so we have extras in our freezer. I'd gradually used them all up since start of year...hence, the takeaway!
Frugal things I did manage last week:
* made most homemade meals and packed lunches every day
* saved shower warm-up water and tipped into wash machine
* emptied water bottles onto my potted plants
* used tank water to put sprinkler on a few dry garden areas
* dried all our washing on the line in the sunshine
* topped up fuel using locked-in price - saved lots of $.
* combined errands to minimise driving and use of fuel
* a kind friend offered to return a library book for me which saved me a drive
there too
* watched program I enjoy on ABC iview (free!)
* finished knitting a dishcloth which will be a gift for a friend, along with a lovely
bar of soap
* scanned my shopping receipts into Receipt Jar app - this accumulates points
that I plan to redeem end of year to put towards Xmas grocery shop.
This weekend, I plan to use my time to restock a few things here. I hope everyone has a lovely, and frugal, weekend.
Meg:)
Hi Meg. Yes takeaway has certainly gone up in price. Even those Aldi pizzas. I remember them being $3.
DeleteHi Wendy, Thank you for sharing your inspiring week. I definitely find our coffee and tea tastes better in a clean kettle. I’ve used different kettles at workplaces over the years and feel sick thinking about the build up in them.
ReplyDeleteSolar power can be odd and everyone should look in to how it works for their home. We’ve been told not to use electricity during the day and use at night.
Have a great week and look forward to reading your posts.
Rachel :)
Rachel, I check kettles wherever I go. They can be a bit yucky.
DeleteWhen our solar was installed we were told to use appliances as much as possible during the day. We don't have a battery so there is no way to store the excess electricity for night time use.
But you can charge rechargeable batteries and use those in lights, the radio, the lawnmower, some tools, and make the most of it that way?
DeleteAt work we use citric acid tablets to descale the coffee machine and water cooker, but I must do something wrong, because the tablet doesn't dissolve, at all. I have to grind it to powder before I can use it, which makes a mess. So, I've taken to bringing vinegar to work on the days I'm the only one in the office, just to do a quick descale. I know it's not the best, but I rinse very thorougly afterwards.
Yes, I'd be charging everything during the day.
DeleteHi Wendy, thank you again for an inspiring post. I was wondering if you have shared your recipe for the bread rolls? Gill (Tassie)
ReplyDeleteI used the wholemeal bread with extra goodness recipe in the recipe section here. I did omit the goodness and Darren says they are light and fluffy.
DeleteThose rolls look spectacular!! I’d love to see your recipe!! While I am comfortable making bread, I’ve never tried rolls like that! 😍😍😍 You have been busy this week!!
ReplyDeleteGardenpat in Ohio
Hi Pat. It's the usual recipe I use to bake bread. It's called Wholemeal bread with extra goodness and the recipe is in the recipe section under baking. I did omit the 'goodness ' and just used flours, yeast etc etc.
DeleteMy computer is so slow at present and would not publish my reply.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday we welcomed a new baby. My poor daughter had a very difficult birth and we spent hours with her that night. I decided to buy take away...major mistake. Sandwiches were made at home.
I also love that you made a bakers dozen of rolls.